I don’t often show pictures of myself with celebrities, artists, winegrowers, chefs, politicians or other living icons that I meet in the course of my work, but that’s the best way to introduce the beautiful local Diva that I met the other day while in Orange, in the Vaucluse area of Provence.
The photo below may look like an ordinary view of a man and a woman jogging on a bike path in Paris, but there’s something extraordinary going on here. No matter their relationship, what’s most surprising is that they were together at all in these t-shirts.
I normally speak to groups that invite me because they’re interested in the subject of my talk, whether some aspect of travel, wine, culture, writing or travel journalism. But at this recent event the group didn’t have any prior interest in France as far as I could tell, so I was unsure about the best approach to speak to them about the country where I live.
Destination Brittany, travels with Henri, part 5 (end): Henri and I kissed our host good-bye, told her it would be genial to see her again, and vousvoied her one last time regarding her gentillesse before leaving Dinard for the 4½-hour drive back to Paris.
Destination Brittany, travels with Henri, part 4 of 5: Just before the party on Saturday evening another guest arrived at the neighbor’s house where Henri and I were staying. He was a young actor from Paris and he, too, knocked at the door empty-handed except for his overnight bag.
Destination Brittany, travels with Henri, part 3 of 5: My brother Jon would have loved Dinard. He liked anything with the word resort in it: beach resort, ski resort, island resort, tennis resort. Wearing “smart casual” or “resort casual” came natural to him. After he died in a plane accident in 2006 my three other brothers and I inherited his clothes.
Destination Brittany, travels with Henri, part 2 of 5: On our way from Paris to Brittany Henri and I had talked a lot about what we should bring as a house gift for our hostess. We’d considered chocolates, Champagne, or flowers as a house gift, finally deciding on flowers, but we arrived too late to buy them so we greeted her empty handed.
Destination Brittany, travels with Henri, Part I: Henri and I had never taken a road trip together, so we had no way of knowing how compatible we would be in deciding which towns and sights to visit along the way and where to stop for lunch or coffee or even a pee.
The other day I invited my mother to come with me to visit the Philadelphia Art Museum and the city’s Rodin Museum. She was ironing at the time, preparing her bags for winter in Florida. [...]
